Pokemon TMX : Menace Anew (Part 1)
by Cypherwerf
Summary: A few years in the future, Team Rocket has developed a new chemical to create super powered pokemon. Ash and team must stop them, or else...


# **Pokemon TMX : Menace Anew Part 1**

**Disclaimer :**

Everybody has these. I've seen hundreds of these when reading fics. Didn't ever think I'll write one, but oh well.

I do not own pokemon. Nintendo and a bunch of other people own them. Don't sue me.

C&C much appreciated. This is my first time writing. If I get none, I'll just assume it sucks and I won't continue it. Seriously. Heh. Well, maybe I'll continue it anyway =) 

[yulai@singnet.com.sg][1]

~-~

The computer screen flashed as whole screens of data and statistics scrolled across the monitor rapidly. In front of the terminal, a young man in a white lab coat peered intently at the information. He typed rapidly on the keyboard of the terminal, a look of concentration fixed intently on his face. As he studied the readings however, his brow furrowed.

"Gramps, you better come and have a look at this."

The computer terminal was located in the middle of what looked like a high technology laboratory. A number of electrodes and wires were linked between the computer and what looked to be a sedated Nidorina sleeping in a containment chamber on the table. Flashes of electrical impulses transmitted information monitoring the Nidorina to the computer. The Nidorina however, looked to be severely mutated. It appeared to be more than double it's normal size, being almost the size of a Nidoqueen, and was hopelessly deformed, with misshapen limbs and huge blotchy purple patches on various portions of it's exposed skin. The young man tapped a few buttons on the keyboard, and a few pages of data analysis and statistics started to print out from an adjacent printer.

A older white haired man at the other side of the laboratory turned and walked rapidly to the computer terminal. He bent over and picked up the sheet of data and looked at it.

"This could be bad Gary. These readings are highly abnormal."

Another sheet of data printed out. The younger man picked it up, looked at it and whistled.

"Look at this gramps. It's power readings are totally off the scale, and they are fluctuating madly. It seems to be charged up and highly energized. It's insane. No pokemon should be able to survive this sort of unpredictable power levels. That's what probably caused it to be in such a sorry physical state."

The older man sighed and looked up. He appeared worried.

"I know. But what in the world could have caused this sort of thing?"

~-~

"PIKAAAACHU"

The small yellow mouse shrieked it's own war cry as it released a few thousand kilowatts of electricity from it's cheek sacs. A curved thunderbolt arched towards a distant boulder, filling it with humming energy. The rock was pretty resistant to electricity, but still, the extreme voltage caused the entire boulder to tremble, and every single joint to vibrate. It started to hum and vibrate, being surrounded by a pale yellow aura of electricity. Then, finally, able to take no more, it shattered into a million pieces, each rock fragment still humming with voltage.

"Good work Pikachu!" 

A medium-built teenager with long black hair blowing about in the evening breeze smiled as he complimented the furry yellow pokemon. The little yellow rat chittered eagerly in it's own pikaspeak before jumping up into the boy's arms. It was no doubt exhausted from the tough training.

Ash smiled.

"That's good work Pikachu. With luck we'll be able to beat AJ next year and get back our pokemon master title. I'm really proud of that thunderbolt of yours."

"Pikapi!" (Thanks Ash!)

Ash turned around. He was now a teenager of 18, no longer the dense kid he was when he was going around indigo island earning his badges. He had beat the Elite 4 and Gary when he was 12 to earn the title of Pokemon Master. Since then though, the competition had gotten continuously tougher each year and after holding the titles for 3 years, he had been beaten by AJ and his evolved Sandslash, and ever since, had been beaten each year of the tournament. Ash had gone back to Pallet town to train his pokemon. Throughout the years, he had caught many more new types of pokemon, but still retained his core team of Pikachu, Venusaur, Blaistoise, Charizard and Pidgeotto. Misty and Brock had returned to their homes. Last Ash heard, Misty was helping out at the gym while Brock had opened up a breeding salon in Pewter city. They still kept in touch, but had drifted apart over the years. Ash had taken up a job at the Pallet town Pokemon supply shop. However, Pallet town was small, and business wasn't usually good, so Ash had plenty of time to train his pokemon and conduct researches to learn more about pokemon. After the years of training, his pokemon had gotten quite strong. He could easily be the best pokemon trainer on the island, and was probably near to on par with AJ.

Ash's pokemon was training hard. Venusaur was busy practicing his vine whip on a bunch of logs. Every few seconds it would grab one and toss it up into the air and attempt to shred it into a few million pieces every second. Pidgeotto was practicing it's gust attack, causing the sawdust that was the result of Venusaur's vine whip to swirl around in the air and travel and such high velocities that it was causing numerous pits and etches in a nearby rock formation. Charizard, two of Ash's arcanines and Blastoise were launching huge pillars of fire blast and hydro pump at each other, their attacks canceling out, causing steam to splutter everywhere. Elsewhere, many other of ash's pokemon were also vigorously training. 

Ash grinned. His pokemon were looking good. He looked at his watch. It was about time to be heading back for dinner.

~-~

"Ash, Professor Oak called. He wanted to speak with you about something. Go to the lab. It seemed quite urgent."

"Alright mom, I'm on it. I'll pay him a visit before dinner." Ash called as he grabbed his pokebelt. He had just finished dinner. Ash sometimes helped Professor Oak out with his researches. His grandson Gary now worked at the Pallet town laboratories permanently. After his loss to Ash, Gary had tried his hand a few more times unsuccessfully in pokemon training. He had then discovered that he had the same knack as his grandfather in laboratory work and thus decided to help him out. Gary was now his grandfather's head assistant at the lab.

Ash tossed his jacket on as he ran out of the house towards the laboratories.

"Pika Pichukapi!" Pikachu called as it ran down the steps towards Ash and jumped onto his shoulder.

"Yes yes, I would never think of going anywhere without you." Ash apologized to Pikachu. 

~-~

"Ring ring"

Ash ran up the steps of the Oak Laboratories entrance and pressed the bell. He pressed the buzzer on the intercom.

"Professor Oak? This is Ash. Mom told me you wanted to see me."

The door opened. A tall man in a white laboratory coat stood behind it. He gave a arrogant smirk.

"So you're here already eh loser?"

Ash scowled. Some things never changed, he thought. Gary may have turned out to be a brilliant scientist assistant to his grandfather, but he was still as arrogant as ever.

Wary of the sparks that were coming out of Pikachu's cheeks and the cold stare that was fixed on him, Gary put up both his hands in front of him in mock surrender.

"ok ok, you're still a loser, but maybe you aren't such a BIG loser. Anyway, come this way. Gramps wants to see you." Turning around, Gary walked briskly into the laboratory compound. Muttering under his breath, Ash followed, matching his pace with the scientist's quick tread.

"What's up that he wanted to see me about so urgently?" Ash inquired.

Gary's brow creased. He lost the smirk and a serious expression fixed on his face.

"You had better let Gramps tell you. He can probably explain it better than I can. What I can tell you is, it's not good."

Ash frowned. The usually stuck up teenager appeared to be quite concerned over whatever the issue was that Professor Oak had called him about. This somber behaviour worried him. Ash bit his tongue and decided against asking further questions and only quickened his pace.

Ash entered the main laboratory. Immediately, a large confinement chamber in the middle of the lab caught his attention. He gaped. In it was an extremely large, deformed and mutated pokemon which might have been a Nidorina. Of course this would be had it not been that the pokemon was as large as a snorlax and was extremely deformed with extremely splotchy skin and hideous facial features and gnarled joints. It's claws were extremely huge, appearing to be razor sharp and deadly, even in it's misshapenness. There was a whole aura of wrongness about the Nidorina. It appeared to be sedated and even so was tossing about restlessly in it's slumber. Ash's expert eye detected a great sense of unnatural uneasiness about the pokemon and decided that it would probably be extremely aggressive when conscious.

And extremely powerful too. Ash thought that even Pikachu might have been hard pressed to beat it.

A white-haired, middle-aged man in a long white laboratory coat at the other side of the room turned when hearing Ash's gasp. His features were striking, and resembled those of Gary's.

"Ash! Glad to see you're here. I see you have witnessed this horrifying specimen. This is a grave issue indeed. Sit down. Let me tell you what this is all about."

~-~

Ash took a seat on a chair next to the confinement chamber. Gary perched himself on the edge of a study table while Professor Oak sat back on his armchair. His expression was solemn.

"We received strange reports of abnormal pokemon sightings from the southwestern islands lately. Inhabitants near Cinnabar, have, for the last few months reported that wild pokemon there had become more aggressive and powerful. Recently, there have been reports that pokemon of abnormal size and power have been seen in the outskirts of some of the more remote islands. At first these reports were dismissed as stories made up by drunkards, or mistaken villagers. These reports have been increasing in frequency, but stories of fifty foot high primeapes and bus sized arcanines were laughed off. Until Monday."

Gary shifted.

"Two days ago, on Monday, near the newly opened Cinnabar Safari, a wild Nidorina, this specimen you see here, dashed out of the outlying long grass and towards the Safari entrance. It was apparently attracted by a huge truckload of safari bait that was being delivered at that time. The safari management was shocked at it's sudden appearance, but reacted quickly and managed to secure the pokemon by using sleep powder tipped tranquilizer bullets. The head game keeper apparently freaked out, and rushed the pokemon here to the labs in secret at night for us to examine. Quite smart actually. If something like this spreads, it could cause a island wide panic."

Ash turned and looked at the Nidorina with pity.

"What happened to it? It looks so deformed.. as if it's been hideously altered somehow."

Profesor Oak cleared his throat.

"That's what we're trying to find out. This nidorina alone, has the strength of ten nidoqueens. The safari keepers have vast experience in handling this sort of thing, and yet, they had to use four rhydons and a kangashan as well as a quadruple dosage of sleep powder before they managed to subdue this beast. It's over powered past the limits of nature. I only fear that somebody is conducting illegal experiments to alter these pokemon in an attempt to make them ultimate fighting machines."

Ash slammed his fist on the table.

"How could they? That's terrible! They must be stopped."

Gary shook his head.

"It's not that easy. We've been conducting tests trying to isolate what causes this thing. It's a biochemical reagent that bonds with the pokemon's metabolism apparently. It causes increased levels of aggression and growth hormones that the pokemon's body secrete naturally when they level up and gain additional strength or agility. This unnatural boost causes their pokemon abilities to increase tremendously at the cost of an entire breakdown of the rest of their body system. It causes the pokemon to be in great pain and become totally insane, destroying everything it can in it's reach. They're extremely dangerous. The worst thing is, it's contagious, and we're not sure how it spreads. One of the safari taurus' became infected and started to attack the game keepers. In a brink of insanity, it leapt off an edge of a cliff. It appears to be totally random."

Professor Oak looked bleak.

"Such a thing, if allowed to spread could mean the destruction of all pokemon across the planet as we know it. And probably humans too, if the pokemon turn on their owners. The people doing such stuff to the pokemon must be stopped."

Ash cleared his throat.

"They must be stopped alright. Where do I come in? How can I help? You need me to help you do some research on this apparently syndrome isit?"

Gary expression shifted and retained some of it's old smirk.

"Actually, I'm good enough to handle it with Gramps. What we need, is somebody to go to Cinnabar and investigate it. Gramps thinks that your pathetic little pokemon training skills would be able to let you stand up against whatever's out there. I beg to differ, but, whatever."

"Sure, I'll do it. But if that's what you think, why don't' you go and investigate while I stay and help out at the lab."

"Ooh, s'matter, somebody chicken? Nah. Nobody could replace me at the lab. Gramps couldn't' do anything without me. I have to be here."

Professor Oak cast a meaningful glance at Gary.

"Ahem. That's not exactly true. However, you do help me a lot out here at the lab." Turning, he spoke to Ash.

"Ash, you're the one currently in Pallet town right now with the most pokemon experience, and from what I've seen of these mutated pokemon, they're super aggressive and powerful and we need someone good at pokemon battling in order to be able stand a chance. Please go Ash. This danger threatens the world, and the existence of all pokemon."

Ash fixed a gaze on the Nidorina tossing restlessly in it's sleep.

"Sure. I'll do it"

~-~

Ash sat on the porch step of his house after dinner. He put his elbows on his knees and rested his head on them. He remained there for a while, staring into the gradually darkening horizon. Twilight was descending upon Pallet town. A gradual evening breeze swept across the Ketchum residence, causing the rustling of the tree leaves in the back yard as well as a further messing up of Ash's long unruly ebony hair. Pikachu skipped from inside the house to land on the first step of the porch of the house. It was holding a rosy red apple in it's tiny paws.

"Pika pika." Pikachu uttered as he munched on his apple, in absolute bliss. "Pika Pikachu!"

Ash continued to look into the fading sunset. Then, after a brief silence, Ash tilted the angle of his head so that he could glance at the happy snacking pokemon.

"What do you think about the mission Professor Oak gave us Pikachu? That Nidorina looked to be in great pain and suffering." His brown eyes flared with a flash of rage. "How could anyone do this?"

"Kachupi Pika!" Pikachu agreed. He growled, eyes narrowing for a second with a few brief sparks flashing from it's cheeks. Pokemon and Master both had similar expressions in that moment. "Pika Pikachu!"

Ash's eyes turned contemplative. He turned back into the dusky distance. " I don't know Pikachu. Do you think we'll be able to handle whatever we're up against. I know we're probably good and that we've been training hard these past few years, but do we really have what it takes to go up against these gigantic souped up pokemon power sorta things? I mean, that thing alone really looked almost too much for us."

"Pikapi kachu chupi pika!" The little yellow electric mouse chittered irately. "Pika kapi chupi chu!" He reminded Ash.

Ash smiled and a small grin creased the worried expression on his face. "Yep Pikachu, I sure was quite overconfidence in those days when I was young wasn't I? Nah, of course I don't doubt you. I'm quite sure we can handle them." Ash sighed. Those days. Briefly, he thought of Brock and Misty. Misty. His thoughts broke briefly. He wondered how they were doing. He must have been quite the annoying little kid back then.

But that was then, and now is now, he thought. A hard expression settled on his face. He had been training for years and now his pokemon were more powerful than they had ever been. Pikachu was nearing the apex of his training. Already, he could probably match the voltage produced by the Pallet town power station and was probably one of the most powerful electric pokemon on Indigo Island. He was ready. Bring them on. The people would pay, for the hideous acts they were doing. Ash shook their head. Let them watch out.

Pikachu cheered "Pika Pikachu!" Before he too turned into the horizon to admire the sunset with Ash.

~-~

"Ring ring. Ring ring." The videophone rung continuously, disturbing the silence of a night. Ash arose grumpily, half asleep, as he staggered towards the approximate direction of the phone. _Who?.. Middle of night… must be some idiot…_, Ash thought, dozily. Reaching one clumsy hand out, he lifted the phone up after a few missed grabs. He pressed the button to activate the video screen. His face pale and haggard, with his hair all rumpled as usual as he confronted the video screen, he started, " Ash here…. Ketchum residence… 3 a.m. now… what the hell are…WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE??"

Ash's eyes snapped open as the image on the video screen appeared. Professor Oak's image was plastered all over the screen. In the background, it looked like the lab, except all hell had broke loose. Most of the machinery was shattered and there was a raging fire all over the lab. Ash noticed that the confinement chamber was shattered as he brought himself to alert.

"Ash, HELP, the Nidorina smashed… broke loose… not sedated…" Professor Oak's frantic image broke up into bits of static as the lab undergone more destruction. The mirror panned briefly and showed a image of Gary slightly burnt and injured on his left arm trying to hold his own with a badly injured Dugtrio against a huge mad enraged Nidorina that seemed to be incredibly spewing fire all over the place. A flamethrower attack by the Nidorina that seemed to be bigger than a normal fire blast suddenly hit the screen causing the entire videophone monitor to black out into static.

Ash was already running, grabbing his pokebelt near the door. "Pikachu! To me!" He called as he sprinted out of the gate. A sleepy looking Pikachu from the second floor appeared at the window before coming to realization and flew out of the window to sprint and catch up with his owner.

Ash's mind whirled as he flew down towards the direction of the Oak laboratories for the second time that day. A normal Nidorina certainly did not learn fire based attacks, certainly not ones of that magnitude and destructiveness that were rarely performed by even well trained Charizards. But then again that Nidorina was hardly said to be normal. And Gary, a former trainer who had beaten the elite four before, struggling to hold his own against a pokemon that was not even into it's final evolution. Ash could only pray as he sprinted, leaving dozens of houses behind him, seeing numerous lampposts flash pass along him.

Pikachu raced alongside Ash. It naturally sensed the grim situation and that something was up.

The Oak Laboratories, the pride of the otherwise insignificant small little town loomed just ahead of Ash. Already, Ash could see a raging fire consuming the building. He raced up to the compound entrance as he heard the siren of the Pallet Town fire service in the distance behind him.

The Oak Laboratories were burning beyond recognition. It was surprising that the entire building had not collapsed yet due to lack of support with the fire as huge as it was. From the main gate, Ash could already felt he heat. As he headed towards the steps, a burning wall by the left of what used to be the main door erupted. A gigantic Machamp flew out, crashing to the ground in the garden. It was knocked unconscious, it's frighteningly huge body twitching and in spasms, appearing severely burnt as part of it's right side was still burning slightly. As Ash's eyes took in this remarkable scene, two figures hurried out of the hold in the wall. They looked flurried, and Ash was glad to see that Professor Oak and Gary looked mostly ok. Gary turned his head around as he looked at the hole in the wall that he had just ran out of. In one smooth motion, he brought his left hand with a pokeball up, pointing it in the direction of the huge fighting pokemon, crying "Machamp return!". A thin red beam projected from the pokeball to recall the injuredpokemon. Simultaneously, his right hand swung up, from his side, past his belt, grabbing a pokeball and launching it in the air towards the direction of the hold. The charred laboratory coat swung around him with his brown hair swinging wildly as he shouted "Vaporeon go! Hydro pump. NOW!!!" Turning around, barely casting a glance at Ash, with his attention riveted on the hole, and with blood streaming down a cut on his right cheek, Gary yelled "Ash! Call out your water pokemon! It seems to be fire based!"

The Vaporeon had hardly exited from it's pokeball as a huge HUGE pokemon that might have been a Nidorina charged out of the hole. Pausing, it stood up and gave a massive roar.

It stretched. It was astounding. It's muscles riveted, his fangs flashing, it's eyes red with rage as it surveyed the scene and gave a cry of rage. And what a cry of rage it was. It was as if all the forbidden souls in hades and torture in the pits of hell were cumulated into the scream. The demonic shriek shattered the calamity of the night. The people from the fire department who had just pulled up in front of the laboratory froze. It was such a scream.

Vaporeon wasted no time however. It took a deep breath, and even as it balked at the scene, it was well trained enough not to turn and abandon it's trainer. It released it's attack, sending what seemed like a huge tidal wave of water jets at the insane pokemon.

The Nidorina roared in pain. But however huge and element effective the attack was, the immense beast only seemed to be wallowing in a tiny of jet of water streams as it shook itself and recovered. It was undaunted, as if unaffected.

Ash wasted no time. His deft fingers brought the pokeball from his belt to behind his shoulder in one swift motion and with another launched it at the beast.

"Blastoise, Go!! Maximum Hydro pump!"

Even as the huge turtle pokemon appeared from it's pokeball, it's twin water cannons on it's back were already working overtime. Two twin water jets formed up in front of the Blaistoise, forming a huge wave of water, before slaming the entire might of it in a wave towards the mutated Nidorina.

"BLASTOISE!"

But the Nidorina was quicker. With it's enhanced speed, it was already recovering from the Vaporeon's hydro pump, it flashed, and had charged up a huge fire blast. A fire blast so huge, that the fire ball created almost dwarfed the entire burning Oak laboratories. With a huge maniacal war cry, it launched the ultimate fire attack just Ash's newly sent out Blastoise launched his.

A great pillar of steam 20 metres high erupted as the two opposing elemental attacks met. But despite the water pokemon's element advantage and it's own expert training, it failed to penetrate, but instead, the water from the hydro pump was pushed back into a defensive wall around the water pokemon. Gary's Vaporeon, caught unaware just after it had launched it's previous hydro pump was hit head on, and despite it's own resistance, was weakened enough to faint. Gary pulled out a pokeball to recall it.

The attacks died ended, with neither side having an advantage. Ash's hands narrowed. He had to take down the Nidorina. And fast, before it destroyed the whole town.

"Blastoise! Ultimate attack now!"

The huge turtle pokemon though weary from it's last attack charged up yet again. When it unleashed, it let loose all it's fury. Thunder clouds formed overhead, discharging what looked like huge waterfalls of water on the Nidorina. The ground burst into fissure as great geysers blasted up towards the sky, meeting the waterfalls in the midpoint of the horizon. The Blastoise glowed, charging up, before letting lose a blast of water fury, so huge, that behind the Nidorina, the Oak Laboratories, already fragile from the fire, crushed under the pressure of the water, with all the water extinguished. The Nidorina looked severely winded.

"Pikachu! Double team tech! Lightning fury!"

The grim-looking mouse nodded, it's cheeks already charging. With a stare in the direction of it's target, it launched it's attack.

"PIKACHHHHUUUUUU!!!!!"

Great bolts of lightning shot out of it's cheek. Yellow streaks arched through the conducting water, hitting the Nidorina straight on. The Nidorina roared in pain. It looked as if it was going to faint. However, it's body starting to flash.

Professor Oak, who was leaning on the fence suddenly jerked upright. He winced as that movement suddenly put pressure on his broken rib. "Everybody clear! It's going to perform it's self destruct attack!"

_Oh no! Self Destruct!_ Ash thought. An explosion from a pokemon of this power would be incredible. He started pulling out his pokeballs and recalled his pokemon.

Gary was already moving. He brought out one of his last few pokeballs. "Alakazam go! Teleport now!"

Just as Ash saw the Nidorina blow up into millions of fragments, the blast from the explosion accelerating towards him, he felt a surge of psychic power. He saw a white flash, and then, he was falling though the air. His arms flailing, he collapsed on the ground, and it all went black.

~-~

"And so when your Alakazam teleported me away, it decided to teleport me to a place 3 metres in the air."

Gary actually looked mildly embarrassed. "Eh, yeah. We were kinda pressed for time you noticed, and it probably didn't have enough time to calculate an exact coordinates for our destination. You must admit, even with the rush we cut it kinda close."

Ash was sitting, propped up on a bed in a ward of the Pallet Town Pokemon centre. At the end of the battle, Gary's Alakazam had teleported everybody, and the pokemon to a location away from the explosion site. Most of them had arrived safely, but Ash, with his bad luck, had been teleported to 3 metres from the ground and had blacked out. He had just regained conscious, and was with Gary and Professor Oak who had visited his hospital ward.

"How are my pokemon? Are they alright?"

Gary was slouching on a couch by the window. He had broken his left leg in the conflict and was in crutches. Professor Oak was working by a laptop. He had busted a few ribs and had to be taped up.

Gary smirked. "Yeah, they're fine. Nurse Joy's just rejuvenating them."

Ash sat back on the bed, apparently relieved. He suddenly assumed a pondering expression, his eyebrows creasing. He looked up.

"By the way Professor Oak, what happened. You still haven't told me how that mutated pokemon broke loose? And how could a Nidorina, a normal/poison type pokemon possibly perform fire based attacks of such magnitude??"

The mood in the room turned serious. Professor Oak looked up from the lap top with a worried expression. He exchanged glances with his grandson.

"Seriously, we don't know Ash," Professor Oak said. "We gave it enough sedative to have knocked it out for a week supposedly, all things considered. That thing seemed to have been controlled by someone else. One moment it was quietly tossing in it's sleep, the next moment, it's eyes suddenly snapped open and flashed golden as if it was in some sort of weird trance and it's energy readings went off the scale totally and it shattered out of the containment chamber."

"Somebody's playing games with us." Gary spoke up from the corner. "I don't like it. It's almost as if somebody deliberately planted the Nidorina so we would actually capture it and concealed it's power until the time was right and it caused the pokemon to berserk itself and use it's full power, surprising us all."

"One thing we do know however," Professor Oak spoke up. " Before the pokemon went berserk, we managed to isolate what was causing the pokemon to have such increased power levels to be the work of a certain biochemical. We're calling this transmugen X. When injected into a pokemon, it probably causes these permanent effects on it, namely, insanity and abnormal increase in it's power. Also, this transmugen X seems to be heavily linked to the element of fire in pokemon, which would explain how a Nidorina would be able to perform super powered fire attacks. I think all pokemon treated with this transmugen X should have the ability to perform devastating fire based attacks."

"Unfortunately, " Professor Oak continued. " What samples we have of this transmugen X for further study was completely destroyed in the berserk attack."

"Destroyed?" Gary rolled his eyes. "The lab is now a crater bigger than this pokecenter. It'll probably fill up the next rainy season and become a lake."

Ash narrowed his eyes. "So, you suspect that someone was actually in control of the Nidorina all along and he planted it with us so as some sort of warning to let us know what they're capable about. And when they discovered we began to find out too much about this transmugen X, they activated the Nidorina and destroyed the whole lab."

Professor Oak nodded. "That's about the gist of it. They would have destroyed us too. They nearly did. Who would have thought a Nidorina could be so powerful?"

Ash grimly shook his head. "That was no Nidorina, it was a monster."

The 3 of them contemplated in silence. Professor Oak went back to work on the lap top. All of the sudden, Professor Oak jerked up. "I'm receiving some sort of weird transmission on my laptop. It's a email of some sort. It seems to have taken over my computer. I can't control it."

Gary flew over to where his grandfather was. He began typing furiously on the laptop keyboard. Ash hopped off the bed and made his way to look in over Gary's shoulder. 

"You're right. Whatever it is, it just taken over the computer," Gary said, amidst typing furiously. "It's sending us a message of some sort. Hang on, let me access it."

Gary brought up the message. 

GREETINGS. BY NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE REALISED THAT THE WHOLE THING WAS A TRAP FROM BEGINNING TO THE END. IT IS MOST ADMIRABLE THAT YOU SHOULD INDEED HAVE SURVIVED IT. FOR THIS YOU HAVE EARNED MY GREATEST RESPECT. HOWEVER, YOU SHOULD ALSO HAVE REALISED BY NOW THAT RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. THERE CANNOT BE BUT ONE OUTCOME SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO OPPOSE THE MIGHT OF TEAM ROCKET EXTREME. OUR RESEARCH INTO TMX IS COMPLETE, AND IT SHALL ENSURE THE RULE AND CONTROL OF ALL POKEMON AS WELL AS THE WORLD. YOU STUBBORN FOOLS WILL PROBABLY SEEK TO STOP US, BUT KNOW THIS. WE WILL TRIUMPH.

AH HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHA

After the message scrolled past, the speakers of the laptop engaged, and maniacal laughter began looping through it's system. The whole screen hung and filled with "AH HAHAHAHA"'s. Gary picked up the lap top and flung it against the far wall, smashing it, and stopping the sound of the laughter in the process.

Ash was in deep thought. "So, it's Team Rocket. They're behind this. Figures. That's why they have been so quite all these years. Since Celadon."

A few years back, the police had raided the headquarters of Team Rocket in Celadon City. They had given it a crushing blow, and since then, trouble from Team Rocket had been barely heard. Team Rocket was thought to have been vanished and wiped out all together. Ash smiled as he recalled Jesse, James and Meowth, the 3 bumbling rockets who had always tried to steal Pikachu away from him on his pokemon journey. Last he heard, they had quit Team Rocket just after the raid, as did most of the rocket organization. They had served their time in prison and had been released to restart their lives. Ash recalled vaguely of some business enterprise Jesse and James had opened in Celadon. Some pizza parlor or something.

Professor Oak cleared his throat. "Well, Ash, that settles it. The fate of the world is in our hands. Gary and I will stay here at Pallet to rebuild the lab and research more into this transmugen X or TMX as they seem to call it. This will be our base where you can contact us. Tomorrow, you will go to Celadon city and investigate, picking up on the trail of Team Rocket. Forget Cinnabar Island first. The trail will probably lead from there. From how I see it, Team Rocket is probably too arrogant and overconfident right now because of their super powered pokemon that they can afford to let us on their trail deliberately to mock us. From there, you will follow their trail and try and discover the site and cause of all this pokemon mutation. Then, we'll try and send backup and eliminate this threat to pokemon and humanity once and for all."

Gary spoke up. "You had better get someone to go with you Ash. Some people hopefully. Even that Nidorina was almost too much for you. You need somebody good, like me, to win the pokemon battles for your sorry ass. I don't think you can handle it." He smirked. 

Ash was about to send a retort on how he was better than Gary and able to handle the pokemon battles by his own. However, upon consideration, he realized that he was right, and he was going to need some help against those super powered fire pokemon. He needed some one, or a few people to go with him. Preferably some people with highly trained pokemon that were resistant to fire. He pondered. Who would these people be?

Ash was in a fix. He wished Pikachu was here. Pikachu would just give him an electric shock and all would suddenly come clear to him. He smiled as he remembered the days where Misty and Brock used to be amused at this esoteric way of gaining inspiration.

Hmm, who could he ask? What was strong against fire. Definitely not plant pokemon, or poison, or ice. Something like water, or rock would be good. Who did he know that trained water or rock pokemon?

Ash was in deep thought. He started to pace the room. Gary and Professor Oak just sat there, looking with interest at Ash pacing across the room.

_Sigh_, Ash thought. _Misty was probably running the Cerulean city water pokemon gym now._ He smiled as he thought of the fourth sensational sister whose company he had always enjoyed being around even though he rarely admitted it. And Brock was probably having the time of his life running his breeding salon in pewter city, the city of stone, and chasing around Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys. Oh well, the Pewter city rock pokemon gym leader had been a really great friend to have around. How he missed the old days where they were traveling around together. 

_Hmm_, he turned his thoughts back to the subject at hand. _Who can I get to go with me?_

"Doh!" Ash slapped himself on the forehead much to the amusement of Gary and Professor Oak who were watching his solitary antics. "I know, I'll ask Misty and Brock to go along with me since I enjoy their company and their pokemon are strong against fire."

Professor Oak slapped Ash on the back. "Excellent idea! How did you ever think of it? You can set off for Celadon city tomorrow via Pewter city and Cerulean city. This way you can pick them up."

"Thanks professor, I wonder how I thought of it too." Ash replied, excited that he would see his old friends again.

Gary only snorted, and gave Ash a look that said _Way Dense. Moron!_

~-~

   [1]: mailto:yulai@singnet.com.sg



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